PRISMA Search

"I found some studies" is not a search — it is a claim with no way to check it. A reproducible search states exactly what was asked, where, when, and what was kept or dropped and why. Anyone repeating it should land on the same set. This skill makes an agent's evidence-gathering auditable the way a systematic review is.

When to use

Whenever the agent retrieves a body of literature to ground an answer — a drug question, an association question, a "what does the evidence say" question. Even a lightweight search benefits from stating its terms.

The rule

A search is only as good as its ability to be repeated. Record the five things that make it repeatable.

1. The query — the actual search string(s), with the boolean/field structure, not a paraphrase of the topic.
2. The databases — which sources were searched (e.g. PubMed, Europe PMC, a trials registry, GBIF-style records), by name.
3. The retrieval date — the real date the search ran. Evidence changes; a search without a date cannot be reproduced or trusted later. Stamp the true date, never a placeholder.
4. Inclusion / exclusion criteria — what qualified a record (study type, population, outcome, language, date range) and what disqualified it.
5. The count — how many records were found, screened, excluded (with reasons), and included. This is the PRISMA flow.

The PRISMA flow to report